Peers in the House of Lords last night refused to back down in their showdown with the government over disability benefits, inflicting a double defeat on Labour's Welfare Reform Bill.
They backed an amendment on extending pensions to war widows and another to change government plans to deny incapacity benefit to some out-of-work disabled.
Under the Welfare Reform and Pensions Bill, ministers had planned to deny the benefit to people who had not worked for three years before claiming.
But peers voted by 260 to 127, majority 133, for an amendment by Lord Ashley of Stoke to extend the period to seven years.
It was the second blow for the government last night. Earlier, peers voted by 153 to 140, majority 13, to let young war widows with children keep their dead husbands' occupational pension rights.
Baroness Strange successfully argued that war widows with children should be entitled to continue receiving their dead husbands' pensions even if they remarried or cohabited.
Another amendment to make it easier for disabled people with occupational pensions to qualify for the incapacity benefit was approved without a vote.
Under Lord Ashley's amendment, the threshold before disabled people are means-tested to qualify for incapacity benefit is raised from £85 a week to £128 a week.
The Bill now returns to the Commons, where the government will have to reverse the amendments in the face of bitter backbench opposition.
Lord Ashley said the government had lost the moral argument and should now back down.
However, the Social Security Secretary, Mr Alistair Darling, said there would be no more concessions.
Disabled groups, who had earlier demonstrated outside parliament in wheelchairs, welcomed the votes.
Mr Steve Winyard, spokesman for the Disability Benefits Consortium, said: "MPs now have a final chance to resist these unfair and unpopular cuts to disability benefits.
"We urge MPs to support their constituents who are disabled or who become disabled in the future by voting for them."